On Fri, Dec 01, 2000 at 07:41:01PM -0700, cls-c/s wrote: > in bash, i sometimes hit ' at the end of a command and i then get > on the > next line. what does > do?
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ top' > > > > > > > > > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ exit The > prompt is bash's way of telling you that you haven't finished typing in a command yet. When you typed the single quote you tell bash that you are starting to type an argument and that characters that normally have special meanings such as *, $, the space, and the carriage return, no longer have those special meanings. Since the carriage return no longer has it's special meaning (to tell bash you are done typing a command) bash just interprets it as one more character to put into that argument. It will stay in this mode until you type another single quote. The single quote retains it's special meaning because otherwise you would have no way to stop typing the argument, the backslash retains it's special meaning in case you have to insert a single quote character into the argument. You can also still abort the command with CTRL-C . -- Harry Henry Gebel, ICQ# 76308382 West Dover Hundred, Delaware
